New Zealand is apparently the kind of country that spares its children the indignity of having some truly unfortunate names. Some might consider the banning of names to be an infringement on ones freedom, and that's certainly debatable. After all, why should a country prohibit a parent from giving their child the name of their choice, even if it's unusual? But what if that choice was "Mafia No Fear," "4Real" or "Anal"? Those are a few of the names that have come up on the banned list in New Zealand.
CNN posted the list below, which lists off some of the names that have been banned in New Zealand and how many times those names have come up.
Justice:62King:31Princess:28Prince:27Royal:25Duke:10Major:9Bishop:9Majesty:7J:6Lucifer:6using brackets around middle names:4Knight:4Lady:3using back slash between names:8Judge:3Royale:2Messiah:2T:2I:2Queen:2II:2Sir:2III:2Jr:2E:2V:2Justus:2Master:2Constable:1Queen Victoria:1Regal:1Emperor:1Christ:1Juztice:13rd:1C J :1G:1Roman numerals III:1General:1Saint:1Lord:1. (full stop):189:1Eminence:1M:1VI:1Mafia No Fear:12nd:1Majesti:1Rogue:14real:1* (star symbol):15th:1S P:1C:1Sargent:1Honour:1D:1Minister:1MJ:1Chief:1Mr:1V8:1President:1MC:1Anal:1A.J:1Baron:1L B:1H-Q:1Queen V:1
So, it looks like titles are among the most frequently requested banned names, with "Justice" topping the list. I actually like Justice as a first name. I'm assuming it's been nixed because it's used as a title in the judicial system (the "Chief Justice," for example). It does sort of make sense that the country would prohibit people from prematurely titling their children, which would apply to Justice, as well as "Queen," "King," and "Bishop," which are all among the above list. Also on the list, Lucifer, Messiah and Christ.
It's the ones near the bottom that start to get truly bizarre, like the mentioned "Anal." I can't imagine why anyone would want to name their child Anal. Maybe they were looking to pronounce it A-nahl? As Arrested Development's Tobias Funke can attest, it's all in the pronunciation. According to the agency responsible for approving names, the name "must not cause offense to a reasonable person," which may be where "Anal" failed the test. There's also a "." and a "*" on the list of banned names. Punctuation as a name is probably a bad idea for names in general, hyphens, tildes, accent marks and necessary trema's obviously excluded. (Again, it's all in the pronunciation.)
What do you think? Should parents be able to name their children whatever they want? Or is New Zealand sparing children the stigma of a bad name or preventing the confusion that may ensue if someone was introduced to Queen Smith or Saint Jones?
